Shih Ch’ing-hsü, the wonderful stone

Overview

Hsing Yün-fei retrieves a roughly foot-wide stone from a river in Pu Songling’s story, as translated by Giles in1880. It resembles clustered hills and releases cloudlike vapour from its cavities before rain. An influential visitor steals it, but after it falls into water it becomes recoverable by Hsing alone. An unnamed elderly stranger later demonstrates knowledge of its ninety-two grottoes and tiny inscription, makes it disappear and return, and explains that the stone can choose its owner. The stranger and stone are connected but are not explicitly declared the same being.

The visitor offers either to keep it away for three years or to shorten Hsing’s life by that amount so that their terms agree. Hsing chooses the latter; three grottoes are closed by the stranger’s touch. Subsequent theft and legal contests turn on the remaining eighty-nine openings, inscription and finger marks. When another official obtains it through pressure on Hsing’s family, a noble-looking figure appears to Hsing in a dream, names himself Shih Ch’ing-hsü, and tells him exactly when and for how much the stone can be bought back. The cloud displays cease while it belongs to the official, and the promised recovery occurs.

Hsing lives to eighty-nine and orders the stone buried with him. Grave robbers later steal it; their cries to the dead owner expose them, and his son brings them before a magistrate. When that official also tries to keep the stone, it slips from a servant’s hands and shatters. The son returns the fragments to his father’s grave. The stone’s choice and dream communication justify treating it as an active supernatural presence, while the text leaves some actions ambiguous: it does not explicitly identify the robbers’ unseen tormentor as the stone or narrate the intention behind its breaking.

Origins & earliest records

Pu Songling’s literary collection in Giles’s selected translation.

Records & interpretation

Complete account and attached notes read; full translator introduction and transcriber notice checked.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

   Pu Songling; translated and annotated by Herbert A. Giles · 1880

   Volume I, pp.306–312; XLII, The Wonderful Stone; electronic notes242–246; complete account and notes read.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical literary translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio — I, pp.306–312; XLII, The Wonderful Stone; electronic notes242–246Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.